A look at some of the lives lost in Nova Scotia mass shooting

Emily Tuck (left to right), Jolene Oliver and Aaron Tuck are shown in a family handout photo. The family from Portapique, N.S. were among the victims of the mass killing in Nova Scotia this past weekend. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Tammy Oliver-McCurdie MANDATORY CREDITT

This is an undated handout phooto of RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson. There is an outpouring of grief across Nova Scotia today as the names of victims of a weekend mass killing begin to emerge, ranging from a nurse to a teacher to RCMP officer Heidi Stevenson.THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-RCMP Mandatory Credit

RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson is shown in an RCMP handout photo. There is an outpouring of grief across Nova Scotia today as the names of victims of a weekend mass killing begin to emerge, ranging from a nurse to a teacher to an RCMP officer. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-RCMP MANDATORY CREDIT

Gina Goulet is shown in a family handout photo. She was among the victims in the mass killings in Nova Scotia this past weekend. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Annette Fisher MANDATORY CREDIT

Jamie Blair (left) and Greg Blair are shown in a family handout photo. They are among the victims of the killing spree in Nova Scotia this past weekend. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Kelly Blair MANDATORY CREDIT

Correctional officers Sean McLeod and Alanna Jenkins are shown in a family handout photo. The couple is among the victims of the mass killing in Nova Scotia this past weekend. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Taylor McLeod MANDATORY CREDIT

The victims in one of Canada’s worst mass killings include an RCMP officer, a teacher, two nurses, neighbours of the shooter and two correctional officers killed in their home.

Here is a look at some of the lives lost:

Dawn Madsen and Frank Gulenchyn

The couple lived in the Durham region in southern Ontario before moving to Nova Scotia, where they were among the victims of this weekend’s violence, a municipal official said.

John Henry, regional chair and chief executive officer of the Regional Municipality of Durham, extended his condolences to the couple’s family in a statement Monday.

Madsen worked at the Hillsdale Terraces long-term care home in Oshawa for decades before retiring in 2019, Henry said.

Online videos show a procession of emergency vehicles driving by an Oshawa home to pay their respects to Madsen’s sons Jon and Ryan Farrington

Joey Webber

Webber had gone on a family errand toward the Shubenacadie, N.S., area, about 50 kilometres northwest of Halifax, when he was killed.

Coun. Steve Streatch, who lives four houses away from Webber in the rural community of Antrim, said he was “a fine young man who lived in the community of the Musquodoboit Valley, and it’s a tragic loss.”

Streatch said Webber worked in the woods, often using traditional methods, and is survived by young daughters.

“He had a good outlook. He always had a big smile, and a lot of times that’s hard to find in people. Often in the morning I would drive by to council and I’d see him at the bus stop with his children,” Streatch said.

Bagley died while “trying to help,” his daughter Charlene Bagley says.

His neighbours in Wentworth, N.S., say Bagley, a military veteran and retired firefighter, was killed Sunday morning as he walked toward a burning home on Hunter Road.

“If you knew him, you knew that was just who he was all the time,” Charlene Bagley wrote in a Facebook post.

Bagley served as a firefighter at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport from 1975 to 2006, a spokeswoman for the airport authority said in an email.

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Corrie Ellison

Ellison, 42, was remembered Monday as a thoughtful, kind friend who went out of his way to help others.

“He’s the type of person that I don’t think anybody would want to see that happen to him,” his father Richard Ellison says.

Corrie Ellison lived in Truro, N.S., but was visiting his father in Portapique when he was killed. Richard Ellison declined to comment on how his son died.

Ashley Fennell says she was good friends with Corrie Ellison for almost a decade. She describes him as “a beautiful soul.”

Corrie Ellison was on disability support because of an old injury. He had no children of his own but he loved kids, Fennell says.

He would join Fennell and her son swimming in the summer and last Christmas, he offered some money for her son’s gifts. He once paid for Fennell to take her son on a trip to a water park when she was struggling.

“I would call him, and it didn’t matter what he was doing, he would jump for me,” she says.

He had texted her about picking up a cigarette roller about a week ago, but the two never arranged a time with the ongoing pandemic. Fennell didn’t know it would be the last time she talked to her friend.

“I didn’t text him back right away and now I’m regretting all this,” she says. “He was just such a nice guy.”

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Jolene Oliver, Aaron Tuck and Emily Tuck

The family members were neighbours of the shooter. Oliver’s sister, Tammy Oliver-McCurdie, said the three were found dead in their Portapique, N.S., home.

Oliver was turning 40 this year and her husband was 45. Their daughter, Emily, was 17.

They had moved to the community after Tuck’s father died a few years ago.

“No matter how much they went through in life they always stayed together, and there was times that they had nothing,” Oliver-McCurdie said.

The sisters grew up in Calgary and remained close into adulthood. Oliver-McCurdie said Oliver was a people person who loved working as a waitress, which she did for most of her life.

“She was such a great listener.”

Emily was an intelligent girl who had plans to continue her education, but couldn’t decide whether to pursue art or welding, her aunt said.

“That kid was so bright. She knew how to weld. She knew how to fix cars. She played the violin.”

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Sean McLeod and Alanna Jenkins

The Wentworth, N.S., couple were correctional officers.

McLeod’s daughter, Taylor McLeod, said Jenkins worked at the Nova Institution for Women in Truro and McLeod worked at the Springhill Institution for more than 20 years.

McLeod’s daughter said the couple deeply loved and cared for her, her little sister and Taylor’s daughter.

“They would have done anything for anybody and they always made sure people were welcome in their home.”

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Greg and Jamie Blair

The couple ran a firm that provides service, sales and installation of natural gas and propane units in the area where the shootings happened.

Relative Judy MacBurnie, said the pair had two small children who are being cared for by grandparents. Greg Blair also had two older sons from an earlier relationship.

MacBurnie said her nephew was a “wonderful person who was always laughing and was the funniest person you ever met.”

“He could find humour in anything and anybody … You couldn’t be around him too long because your face and belly hurt so bad from laughing.”

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Heather O’Brien

The Victorian Order of Nurses said O’Brien was a licensed practical nurse and had worked with VON for nearly 17 years.

O’Brien’s daughter, Darcy Dobson, posted on Facebook about her mother.

“She was kind. She was beautiful. She didn’t deserve any of this,” Dobson wrote, pleading with friends and family not to let the shooting define her mother.

“I want everyone to remember how kind she was. How much she loved being a nurse,” she wrote.

“The way her eyes sparkled when she talked to her grandchildren and the way she just loved Christmas. Let those things define her. Not the horrible way she died.”

Portapique resident Lucille Adams says she knew O’Brien.

“She has so much compassion for the people she worked for and her family,” she says. “She was a very loving person. She was always out there to help somebody. It’s a tragedy that her family has to deal with this.”